The present invention relates to a method for cleaning and maintaining cooking range exhaust systems and to compositions for use in the method.
The term “range” as herein used refers to kitchen appliances used for cooking and for preparing hot food and primarily includes surfaces such as those associated with stove tops, griddles and braziers but also may include ovens and the like. A “range hood” is a metal covering above a cooking surface that leads to a vent or exhaust duct. Especially when in commercial use, cooking ranges are usually provided with a cooking range “exhaust system” which generally include one or more range hood exhaust flues, fans ducts and the like, which are used to draw smoke, odour, fats and oils, and other types of cooking effluent away from the cooking surface. In drawing the effluent away from the cooking surface, some of the fat and oil and other substances accumulate on interior surfaces of the exhaust system, that is to say on surfaces of the range hood, on exhaust fans and on exhaust flue surfaces. The interior surfaces of the cooking range hood exhaust flue, and exhaust system parts, when covered in accumulated fats, oils and cooking effluent, can be a significant fire hazard because grease and other highly flammable effluent are retained near a hot cooking surface. It is also a health hazard since the accumulated fats, oils and food particles can drop back onto cooking surfaces to contaminate food and provide an excellent nutrient for growth of microorganisms which can fall onto and contaminate food on the cooking surface, or infect workers in the vicinity and cause unpleasant odours.
Due to the significant fire danger involved in cooking below accumulated fats, oils and other cooking effluent in a cooking range exhaust, the interior surfaces of a range hood, exhaust flue, and other surfaces of the exhaust system should be cleaned regularly. Commercial food preparation installations are required by law in Australia to be cleaned at regular intervals with the regularity of cleaning dependent upon the intensity of use of the cooking equipment. Typically, cooking range exhaust cleaning is performed manually and can be particularly difficult because of the elevated, confined and remote areas involved, such as in the exhaust flue, ducting and fans and in a backsplash in the range hood, as well as on the range hood surfaces. For these reasons, commercial kitchens oftentimes opt to clean cooking areas having difficult to reach cooking range exhaust portions at unsafe periodic intervals, and even at unhygienically long intervals. Cleaning of these difficult to reach areas can be dangerous, costly, messy, and usually requires closure of the kitchen during the cleaning process. A highly problematic aspect of these cleaning processes relates to occupational health and safety because the surfaces to be cleaned are elevated and usually above cooking surfaces which should not be stepped upon even if covered with a drop sheet. The elevated position therefore requires a ladder or ladder system to be employed. The material being cleaned manually from this elevated position involves oils and fats which are inevitably greasy and slippery. Falls and resulting injuries to workers due to slipping from these ladders are well known. Although the invention will be herein described primarily with reference to cooking equipment in commercial use it will be understood that it is applicable to domestic cooking ranges and to apparatus for use for purposes other than food preparation which may have similar requirements.